Rememberance
by WybourneObsessed
Summary: "You can't run away from your problems, you know," He sadly looked at her through his button eyes. Suddenly, she wished his weren't buttons. She wished that they would be real. But not a chocolate brown like her Father's. His would be emerald green.


**A/N: Heeeey, everyone! WybourneObsessed here with a little one-shot! Because the Other Father is amazing and doesn't get enough looovee~ **

**This is a little thing that came to my mind when I was skipping to every Other Father moment in the movie. What if he wasn't playing his piano when Coraline was trying to escape? What if he was out in the garden? He might be able to teach her a little lesson... **

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She tried the door, pulling and grunting at its cold-as-ice handle. It wouldn't budge. She paused, looking around the dark and now-creepifying other home. How could she have thought this place was better than the real world? This was a nightmare!

Coraline slowly wandered around the house, steering clear of the drawing room, for now. Maybe it would unlock itself if the Other Mother wanted to go in there for some reason. She poked her head cautiously into the kitchen. A cold chill turned her insides into an igloo, and she rubbed her arms, trying to ease away the goosebumps. She wanted out. Now. She was starting to feel like a rat. A trapped rat. A _lab _rat.

But rats are sneaky. They always find ways to escape. And Coralines were very, very sneaky.

The girl looked left and right before walking into the hallway. She slowly crept towards the front door, but whipped back around when she felt the feeling of eyes staring at her back. Button eyes.

Coraline took a deep breath, flattening her hair out of nervousness. "You're okay, Coraline," she whispered to herself. "You're okay. It's all in your head."

She opened the front door with ease, expecting a creak, but getting none. _Of course, _she thought. _This is the Other World. Doors don't creak. _

Everything was perfect in this world. Too perfect. Way too perfect. So perfect, it was insane. Crazy.

Frightening.

She slowly made her way down the perfectly painted steps of the front porch. Not one chip was visible on the hard wood, and it made her shiver. The Other Mother really thought making things like this would get her to stay?

The girl looked up at the star-filled sky. There was the moon... But there was never any sun. She was reminded of Wybie's words when they first met.

"_It's so deep, that if you fell in the bottom and looked up, you'd see a sky filled with stars in the middle of the day"_

Maybe the Other World was really located at the bottom of the well, and that's why there was never any day. Only pitch black night.

She felt like a trapped rat again.

Suddenly, a small glowing light pulled her hazel eyes from the sky, and to the garden in front of her. She hadn't noticed that she was walking the whole time. The bronze iron gates stood, inviting her in. The garden didn't feel... Creepy. It felt safe.

Tentatively, she reached out and the gate actually creaked as it opened. Again, not creepily like she expected. She stepped onto the cobblestones, a ghost of a smile on her face as she imagined the sunset orange hummingbirds zipping around her. And it was at that moment that she wondered if the Other Father was here.

She kept walking, admiring the pure flowers, the innocence of the garden. It seemed like the only thing that was buzzing happily with life. The croaking of frogs, the neon greens and blues and pinks and oranges. The different sizes and shapes... It was magical.

And then she saw him, kneeling over a small patch of those tickle-hungry dragon-snappers, silently feeding them something that looked like bread. He chuckled quietly when one tried to snap at the shoes on his feet. He wiggled a piece of food at it.

"Try this instead, bud." he said. The orange flower automatically nipped at it and chewed it steadily. She didn't have to see his face to know that he was smiling.

"I see you're finally up, huh?" he asked, not turning around. Coraline jumped with a startled "Oh!" of surprise. She nodded quietly after the shock wore off, even though he couldn't see.

"That little plan didn't work out too well, did it?" His voice was soft, and gentle. Just like her real Father's. A shake of the head.

"You only fell asleep here and woke up back home because of her," Coraline didn't have to think twice to know what the "she" referred to. The only sound was the snapping of the flowers as they ate the bread.

"...Why?" her voice was a whisper.

"Because she wanted you to go home and see how much worse it was than over here." he clipped, as if it were obvious. Then he turned to look at her, and his face was sympathetic. "Had nightmares, kiddo?"

Another nod. The corners of his mouth turned up in a sad smile and he held his arms out for an embrace. She padded towards him, hesitant at first, but with each footstep she felt less nervous and more like the child she was. His arms were warm and comforting, and she snuggles deeper into his arms as he hugged her.

"You can't run away from your problems, you know," he murmured tenderly. She sighed.

"What else can I do?"

"I'd say to follow your heart. You're a very brave girl, Coraline." He pulled back and looked at her through his button eyes. Suddenly, she wished his were real and brown, like her real Father's.

"Do you... Ever have them?" she wondered, tilting her head slightly.

"Bad dreams? Oh, no. We... can't really sleep. With these." He tapped a button and shrugged. "That's another reason why I don't why you to have them."

"You... You don't want me to get the buttons?" Coraline's face was a mixture of surprise and confusion. The Other Father shook his head, a smile on his face.

"Not at all. I love your eyes. No piece of plastic could live up to them at all." he said.

The girl smiled. "I wish you had real eyes." He chuckled.

"Never had them, probably never will. But, hey. There's some things that you just can't change." He tossed a piece of bread to a demanding dragon-snapper, who gobbled it up immediately.

"But there's some things you can," she kissed his cheek, and he gently kissed her forehead in return.

"It's up to you to go the distance though, kiddo." he said.

"What do you think?"

"I think you should go for it, and give it all you've got." The Other Father gave her a crooked smile. But somehow it looked... weak. She noticed how drained of energy he seemed to be, and a pang of worry shot through her. Was the Other Mother doing something to him?

Coraline smiled, trying to hide the feeling, and stood up, brushing the dirt from her black pants. He rose as well, slowly, weakly, looking out at something. She turned to follow his gaze, to find that demon-black cat cleaning his paw as he sat on one of the stone walls, tail flicking gently back and forth.

"Are you two done?" he asked. Coraline raised an eyebrow.

"None of your business." She heard another low chuckle from the Other Father and turned to face him. He almost seemed... sleepy.

"Are you alright?" Her eyebrows pulled together in worry. He sighed and nodded.

"I'll be fine. I'm more worried about you," he replied. The cat meowed behind them, and she gave an exasperated sigh, spinning around to look at him.

"She's getting weak," he explained, trotting along the wall. "And when she gets weak, they get weak."

"Who's 'they'?"

"Her creations. Him." he nodded his head at the Other Father, who shook his head sadly.

"The Other Wybie has much worse happening to him, I'm sure."

"What?" the tone of his voice made her blood turn to ice, and her heart skip a beat.

He bit his lip and turned his head to look away. "He pulled a long face... And Mother didn't like it."

Coraline's eyes grew wide. "What did she do to him?"

"Something terrible," the cat's voice cut in.

"Something horrid," the Other Father agreed.

"Take me to him." Coraline demanded to the cat, who blinked his deep blue eyes at her.

"I'm not so sure you would want to see the state he is in."

"I'm sure. _Take me to him._" she growled. The cat shook his head slightly and with the tip of his tail curled into a question mark, prodded off down the cobblestone path that was surely as cold as her insides.

She was about to follow when she remembered the Other Father's presence and turned back to him. He smiled at her, and she wrapped her arms around his waist. He wound his own arms around her again. His embrace was warm and comforting and full of love. Just like her Father's.

"Go for it, kiddo." he whispered.

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**A/N: Ahaha. I love the Other Father. His personality is so easy for me to write. Did you like this? I hope so!**

**Anywayyss... **

**-~-See you soon-~- **


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